USA > Illinois > Macoupin County > Portrait and biographical record of Macoupin County, Illinois : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, together with biographies of all the governors of the state, and of the presidents of the United States > Part 15
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TRANSPORTATION.
Santa Fe Company, aeross various broad streets to a commodious brick station.
The general offices of the road are in Topeka, and occupy a handsome and commodious building near the State capitol. From Topeka to Denver the Santa Fe Route runs for about seventy-live miles in a southwesterly direction to the upper wa- ters of Neosho River, at Emporia, passing through Osage County, where are found some of the richest coal fields of the West. At Newton the line di- verges south through Southern Kansas, the Indian Territory and Texas to Galveston; continuing west from Newton the first city of importance reached is Hutchinson ; here are some of the heaviest salt works in the United States, besides other ex- tensive manufacturing interests. West of Butch- inson the line extends through a fertile, prosperons and rapidly growing district. The line is beautified here and there by many thriving cities and villages. At La Junta, in Colorado, the line for New Mex- ico. Arizona and beyond, turns south. Pueblo, sixty-five miles due west of La Junta, for years the terminns of the Santa Fe System, is a growing manufacturing city. It is admirably located with reference to the great ore-producing canons of Col- orado. All roads leading to it, coal, iron, silver, gold, lead, copper, building stone, everything in fact which is produced in the greatest mining State in the Union, roll naturally down hill to Pueblo. Beyond Pueblo to the west are many thriving eities founded on mining and agriculture. notably: Lead . ville, the greatest mining eamp in Colorador while forty miles north, on the line of the Santa Fe, are the lovely villages of Colorado Springs and Mani- tou, nestling at the foot of Pike's Peak. Manitou is at the mouth of a deep canon, and is one of the most lovely summer resorts in America. Near here is the famous "Garden of the Gods," whose won drous beauty and grandeur is unsurpassed. From Colorado Springs westward, through Manitou and up the canon beyond Pike's Peak, the Colorado Midland Railway is pushing its way far toward the western borders of the State. Eighty miles north of Colorado Springs the Santa Fe line terminates at Denver, a magnificently built eity of nearly two hundred thousand people. It is probable that no American city has so many features of
unique beauty as Denver. Its splendid public build- ings, and its broad avenues lined with beautiful residences cozily located at the foot of the snow- eapped mountains of the Rocky range, render it unlike any other city of its size in the world. The ride from Pueblo to Denver along the foot of the mountains is one never to be missed. The snow- covered peaks, the many combinations of sun and cloud, and ram and snow: the marvelous armos- phere, all combine to surprise and charm the be- holder.
From Newton to Galveston, the line leaving the main east and west line in Kansas at Newton, runs directly south to Galveston. The first place of importance reached is the phenomenal city of Wich- ita, located on the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers, a city of thirty-five thousand people, where only a few years ago was an Indian trading-post. Wichita is one of the most remarkable cities in the West. It has a heavy and growing wholesale trade, and a large amount of manufacturing business, including the Burton Stock Car Works, the Dodd & Whit- aker meat-packing establishments. The city is handsomely laid out, and has many handsome pub lie buildings, commodious business houses and spacious residences, situated on broad avenues, lined with beautiful shade trees. South of Wichita is a cluster of growing cities, comprising Winfield, Wellington, Arkansas City and Caldwell. Wichita and Arkansas City have profited much by the opening up of Oklahoma to settlement. Entering the Indian Territory the line passes through a magnificent agricultural country, as yet almost wholly undeveloped. In Texas the principal cities on the line between the Indian Territory and Gal- veston, are Gainesville, Paris, Ft. Worth, Cleburne, Dallas, Morgan, Temple, Brenham, Houston and Richmond. Galveston, the terminus, is a rapidly growing eity of fifty thousand inhabitants. It is charmingly situated on the Gulf Coast, and has an unsurpassed climate in both summer and winter.
From La Junta to El Paso, the line leaving La Junta climbs to the summit of the Raton Range, seventy-six hundred and twenty-two feet above the sea. On the way up it passes through the impor- tant Colorado towns of El Moro and Trinidad. The village of Raton is an important division point for
TRANSPORTATION.
the railway, and then comes Las Vegas and its famous hot springs, six miles distant from the main other beautiful towns offer unequalled inducements to the seeker after health, wealth and pleasure. San Francisco and other cities of Central and Northern California are reached by the lines of the Southern Pacific by virtue of a special arrangement for traffic. Between Chicago and Kansas City meals are served on the finest dining cars; on the other lines and branches are superb cating-houses and hotels. No expense is spared in securing ele- gant accommodations; the supplies are secured from the best markets East and West.
line, but connected with it by a short line with good equipments. At the Ilot Springs is the Phe- nix Ilotel. The springs are unsurpassed anywhere in the world, and the hotel is conducted hy the company in the most generous manner imaginable. The springs are forty-two in number, and are hot and cold, and have a variety of mineral properties which render them remarkably strong in their cura- tive power. South of Las Vegas the line passes through fertile valleys, heavy forests, and black and rugged canons, until the valley of the Rio Grande is reached. A branch line from Lamy ex- tends up the mountain to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, next to St. Augustine, the oldest city in America. Santa Fe has a new State House, and its quaint old churches and dwellings are inter- spersed with modern structures. It should be seen before the peculiar charm of its antiquity has been entirely destroyed. Albuquerque, Socorro and San Marcial are the chief points between Santa Fe and El Paso. All are important points for the business of mining, cattle raising and general commerce. From Rincon a branch line leads to Deming, where jurction is made with the Southern Pacific Rail- way, and to Silver City, and to the other mining towns of Southern New Mexico. It is the fortunate destiny of New Mexico generally, and the Rio Grande Valley particularly, to soon take front rank in the line of fruit production. The grapes produced in the Lower Rio Grande Valley are not surpassed in either quality or quantity by the product of any part of the Continent.
From Albuquerque to the Pacific Coast, in the heart of New Mexico, due west, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad forms the main Santa Fe Route to California. The line passes through a great mining and stock-raising country, where the climate is per- fect. Prescott, the capital of Arizona, is reached by a branch from Prescott Junction. Constant changes of scenery characterize the line, and the erossing of the Colorado Canon is one of the most remarkable accomplishments known in the railroad world. In Southern California the lines of the California Central & Southern reach every impor- tant city. Barstow, San Bernardino, Colton, San
Diego, National City, Los Angeles, and a hundred
From the resume thus given of the facilities pos- sessed by the Santa Fe Railway, for interchanging traffic at its termini and various junctions, it must be apparent to the reader that the line is admirably situated, and that in many respects it oeeupies a strategie position, superior to that of other trans- Missouri and Mississippi railroads. These advan- tages have been utilized in the past, as they will be in the future. in developing the localities through which the various branches extend, and to build up the permanent prosperity of the property whose history is so closely interwoven with the settlement, development and prosperity of the West beyond the Missouri River. Its local traffic compares fa- vorably with that of other competing lines. To this purely local tratlie must be added the contri- butions of its several termini, all large eities and prominent trade centers in the Missouri and Mis- sissippi Valleys. With the growth and steady development of the manufacturing and other indus- tries of Chicago, Kansas City, St. Joseph, Atchi- son, Leavenworth, Topeka, Wichita, Galveston, El Paso, Pueblo and Denver, the Santa Fe Rail- way must materially make corresponding strides toward attaining that prond financial position which has been the life dream of its originators and pres- ent owners. Under the present progressive and conservative management, all advantages of geo- graphical position, and all the resources of the. through line will be constantly utilized in building up the future prosperity of the road itself, and in developing the extended area of Chicago's com- mercial supremacy. The Land Grant from the Government amounted substantially to three mill- ion acres. In brief its commanding geographical
TRANSPORTATION.
position, coupled with its direct Eastern alliance for through business, must render the Santa Fe eventually one of the most remunerative of our Western railroads.
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The Wahash.
2 O the public and our thousands of readers in general :- It will no doubt be interesting to all if we give a brief description of this road. The Wabash, as now known, has been oper- ated under several names from time to time. It is the offspring, as it were, of the first line of road projected in Illinois, then known as the Northern Cross Railroad, extending from Danville to Quincy. This was chartered in 1837, and upon it the first locomotive was placed in the winter of 1838-39, running from Meredosia, on the Illinois River, to Jacksonville. In 1842 the road was completed from Jacksonville to Springfield, and three trips were made per week. The track was of the old Hat rail style, which was made by nailing thin strips of iron on two parallel lines of timbers placed at the proper distance apart, and running lengthways of the road. The engine as well as the road soon became so impaired that the former had to he abandoned, and mules substituted as the motor power. However, sueb locomotion was destined to be of short duration, for the State soon after sold the entire road for a nominal sum, and thus for a short time was suspended one of the first rail- road enterprises in Illinois. But in the West a new era-one of prodigious industrial activity and far-reaching results in the practical arts-was dawn - ing, and within thirty years of the temporary fail- ure of the road mentioned, Illinois had outstripped all others in gigantic internal improvements, and at present has more miles of railroad than any other State in the Union.
1
The Great Western, whose name has been suc- cessively changed to Toledo, Wabash & Western. Wabash, and Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific, and Wabash Railroad, and The Wabash, the last of whieli it still bears, was an extension of the North- ern Cross Railroad, above mentioned, and traverses
some of the finest portions of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. It soon became the popular highway of travel and tratlic between the East and the West. Through a system of consolidation, unparalleled in American railways, it has become a giant among them, and has added many millions of dollars to the value of bonds and shares of the various com- panies now incorporated in the Wabash system. The road takes its title from the river of that name, a tributary of the Ohio, which in part separates the States of Illinois and Indiana. In looking over the map of the Wabash Railroad it will be seen that the line extends through the most fertile and wealthy portions of the center of the United States, having termini at more large cities than any other Western road. It was indeed a far-reaching sagae- ity which consolidated these various lines into the Wabash system, forming one immense chain of great commercial activity and power. Its terminal facilities are unsurpassed by any competing line. Its home offices are established in commodious quarters in St. Louis. The lines of the road are co-extensive with the importance of the great trans- portation facilities required for the products of the Mississippi Valley. This line passes through the States of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
The various lines of road may be divided into the following :
Miles.
St. Louis to Chicago 286
Toledo to Kansas City
662
St. Louis to Des Moines. 360
Logansport to Detroit .. 207
Chicago to Laketon Junction 123
Clayton to Keokuk 12
Bluffs to Quincy 105
Streator to Forest. 37
Attica to Covington. 15
Champaign to Sidney
12
Edwardsville to Edwardsville.
Crossing 9
Bement to Altamont and Effingham 63
Brunswick to Omaha. 225
Roseberry to Clarinda
21
Salisbury to Glasgow 15
C'entralia to Columbia
22
Miles of main lines and branches .. 2204 From the above main line and branches as in-
TRANSPORTATION.
dieated, it will readily be seen that the Wabash connects with more large cities and great marts of trade than any other line, bringing Omaha, Kansas City, Des Moines, Keokuk, Quincy, St. Louis, Chi- cago, Toledo and Detroit together with one contin- uons line of steel rails. This road has an immense freight traffic of the cereals, live-stock, various productions and manufactured articles of the West and the States through which it passes. Its facili- ties for rapid transit for the vast productions of the packing houses of Kansas City and St. Louis, to Detroit, Toledo and the Eastern marts of trade, is unequalled. A large portion of the grain pro- ductions of Kansas, Nebraska, lowa, Missouri, Illi- nois and Indiana, finds its way to the Eastern mar- kets over the lines of this road. The Wabash has always taken an advanced position in tariffs, and its course toward its patrons has been just and liberal, so that it has always enjoyed the commen- dation of the business and traveling public. The road bed is one of the best in the country, and is ballasted with gravel and stone, well tied and laid with steel rails. The bridges along the various lines and branches are substantial structures. The depots, grounds and general property of the road are in good condition. The management of the Wabash is fully abreast of the times. The road is progressive in every respect. The finest pas- senger ears on the continent are run on its lines, and every effort made to advance the interests of its patrons. The passenger department is unex- celled for the elegant and .substantial comfort afforded travelers. On several of the more im- portant branches of the system, dining cars are run.
Chicago & Alton Railroad.
HIS road traverses some of the best territory of Illinois and Missouri. with its western terminus in Kansas City and southern in St. Louis, and the principal terminus and headquarters in Chicago. It is one of the most important roads of the great system of railroads in the Mississippi Valley. The air-line between St. Louis and Chi- cago, the most prominent cities of the Great West, and the most prononneed commercial rivals, oecu-
pies a prominent position among the trans-Missis- sippi Railroads. This may be attributed partly to the manner in which the management has fostered and developed the local business along the line of the road since its organization in 1862. 1ts man- agement has always kept abreast of the times.
The length of the system is practically nine hun- dred miles. In brief the Chicago & Alton Rail- road has by a judicious system of permanent im- provement, and by the introduction of modern appliances which tend to the preservation of life and property, placed itself in such a condition, materia ly and physically, that its financial condi- tion is not easily affected. Its success as one of the great highways of the West is an assured reality. It might be appropriately noted here that while much of this road's suecess may be attributed to ils admirable geographical location, embracing a very rich section of the country for local traffic, and with termini on Lake Michigan and the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, yet equally as much is due to the wisdom and stability of the management.
Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
HIE Quincy & Louisiana branch of this ex- tensive system passes through a portion of Pike County. It strikes the county at See- horn, running in a southeasterly direction to Rock- port, where it diverges in a southwesterly direction to the Mississippi River, and crosses the Chicago & Alton Railroad bridge to Louisiana, Mo. At Hulls it erosses the Wabash Railroad, The prin- cipal stations on this line in the county are New Canton and Rockport. It furnishes an excellent feeder for the system, and is an important auxiliary to the transportation facilities for the people of the west side of the county.
Big Four,
ORMERLY known as Indiana & St. Louis Railroad, is one of the Great Trunk lines of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, connects the four important cities of Cincinnati, Indianapo-
TRANSPORTATION.
lis, Chicago and St. Louis, and it affords dircet communication for the citizens of the south part of Maconpin County, with these great marts of trade as well as direct connection with the Vander- bilt system leading to the seaboard. The road-bed
is well ballasted, and of a substantial character. The rolling stock is first-class. The principal stations in this county are Bunker Hill, Gillespie and Dor- chester.
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Macoupin County,
Illinois.
0
INTRODUCTORY.
HE time has arrived when it becomes the duty of the people of this county to per- petuate the names of their pioneers, to furnish a record of their early settlement, and relate the story of their progress. The civilization of our day, the enlightenment of the age and the duty that men of the pres- ent time owe to their ancestors, to themselves and to their posterity, demand that a record of their lives and deeds should be made. In bio- graphical history is found a power to instruct man by precedent, to enliven the mental faculties, and to waft down the river of time a afe vessel in which the names and actions of the eopie who contributed to raise this country from its primitive state may be preserved. Surcly and rapidly he great and aged men, who in their prime entered he wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, are passing to their graves. The number re- naining who can relate the incidents of the first days of settlement is becoming small indeed, so that an ctual necessity exists for the collection and preser- ration of events without delay, before all the early ettlers are cut down by the scythe of Time.
To be forgotten has been the great dread of mankind rom remotest ages. All will be forgotten soon enough, n spite of their best works and the most earnest efforts of their friends to perserve the memory of heir lives. The means employed to prevent oblivion ind to perpetuate their memory has been in propor- ion to the amount of intelligence they possessed. "h": pyramids of Egypt were built to perpetuate the ames and deeds of their great rulers. The exhu- nations made by the archeologists of Egypt from buried Memphis indicate a desire of those people
to perpetuate the memory of their achievements The erection of the great obelisks were for the same purpose. Coming down to a later period, we find the Greeks and Romans erecting mausoleums and monu- ments, and carving out statues to chronicle their great achievements and carry them down the ages. It is also evident that the Mound-builders, in piling up their great mounds of earth, had but this idea- to leave something to show that they had lived. All these works, though many of them costly in the ex- treme, give but a faint idea of the lives and charac- ters of those whose memory they were intended to perpetuate, and scarcely anything of the masses of the people that then lived. The great pyramids and some of the obelisks remain objects only of curiosity ; the mausoleums, monuments and statues are crum- bling into dust.
It was left to modern ages to establish an intelli- gent, undecaying, immutable method of perpetuating a full history-immutable in that it is almost un- limited in extent and perpetual in its action; and this is through the art of printing.
To the present generation, however, we are in- debted for the introduction of the admirable system of local biography. By this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life, his history, through the coming ages.
The scythe of Time cuts down all; nothing of the physical man is left. The monument which his chil- dren or friends may erect to hi, memory in the ceme- tery will crumble into dust and pass away ; but his life, his achievements, the work he has accomplished. which otherwise would be forgotten, is perpetuated by a record of this kind.
To preserve the lineaments of our companions we engrave their portraits, for the same reason we col- lect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truth of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who know them are gone: to do this we are ashamed only to publish to the world the history of those whose lives are unworthy of public record.
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY re :
Joseph gurel ٢
191
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
BIOGRAPHICAL
JOSEPH BIRD. The annals of American biography are filled with Képrecords of heroic endeavors on the part of brave boys who at the same time that they were burdened by poverty, cherished a burning ambition to excel in some branch of human knowledge or skill. Many a noble boy has not only tenderly cared for the dear ones who have been left destitute by their father's death but has also planned for the ac. quisition of a liberal education that he might become fitted for the work to which he looked for- ward. Such an experience has been his of whom we write, and success has erowned his efforts, as it usually rewards the industrious and judicious. Mr. Bird, whose portrait appears on the opposite page, is a wealthy capitalist of Carlinville. llis riches have enabled him to do much for the benefit of bis adopted city and county, and his name is closely associated with various enterprises that have ma- terially advanced their interests. He is well-known as the President of the Macoupin County Agricul- tural Board.
A native of the State of Pennsylvania Mr. Bird
was born on a farm in Butler County, May 4, 1828. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Bird, was of Eng- lish birth and spent his entire life in his native land. But two of his children ever came to Amer- ica, William, the father of our subject, and Mary, who married William Potter and died in Butler County, Pa. William Bird was born in London, England. and passed his early life in his English home, but soon after marriage came to this country and located in Butler County, Pa , where he bought a tract of land three miles north of Harmony. He resided there until 1836, when he sold his property and came to Illinois, traveling with a team to Pitts- burg, thirty miles distant. There he embarked on the Ohio River, and voyaged on the waters of that and the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to Colum- biana. Greene County, this State. Ile rented land there, and was in a fair way to prosper when death cut short his career in August, 1837. the county thus losing a practical, hard-working pioneer. His widow was left in limited circumstances with three children to care for.
Our subjeet was only nine years old when he was thus sadly bereft of his father's care, and as he was the only son, he had to commence at once to help support the family. He was a bright, sturdy little lad and the twenty-five cents a day that lie earned working on a farm during the busy season
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192
PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
was a welcome addition to the family income. In 1839 and 1810 he worked during the summer sea- son for $6 a month and his board. In 1839 his mother removed to Carrollton, and there he worked out in 1840 and 1841. Then, his mother having bought a farm, he assisted her in its management, and was thus engaged until 1849, when he rented the place of his mother and carried it on until 1851. In that year he came to this county and purchased three hundred and five acres of land in what is now Bird Township, paying $5 an aere for it. One hun- dred and forty acres were under cultivation, and a small frame house and a log stable stood in the place.
Mr. Bird resided on that farm until 1879, and in the meantime sold a part of the land, but as his means accumulated he bought other land in the same township, and finally had one thousand and twenty-six acres of valuable land in his possession. In 1879 he came to Carlinville and bought his present elegant residence, which is pleasantly lo- cated on the corner of East Main and High Streets. With its well-kept grounds, handsome interior and rich and tasteful furnishings it is one of the most attractive homes in the city.
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